MSRaynsford

Around three months ago I found out I was going to be exhibiting at Cake International  this weekend, I've been before and as well as the usual demo stalls and retailers there is a vast array of stunning cakes presented as competition entries. I thought I might as well throw my hat in the ring and join in with an entry. I've been working on it almost solidly for the last two weeks, so here it is, an edible version of my marble machine .   'Cake' is rather a loose definition based on most peoples understandings, these are mostly decorative exhibits and the competition itself is heavily categorised, each with different rules about what is and isn't acceptable. Some exhibits must contain cake, some can use dummies instead, some can use internal support structures and some must conform to a theme, you can see the whole categories here . I aimed for category M, 'Pushing the Boundaries' where pretty much anything goes any medium, internal supports a

My current large project (details soon I promise) has produced some large and bulky parts that can't be laid flat on a surface but need supporting fairly equally all over. A quick run to the laser and I have parts that support in all the relevant places. I left a lot of gaps around the edges so sadly they would be better if they were a tighter fit. Next time I should check and measure rather than guesstimate but they will do the job and they only took 10 minutes. Now, back to my video editing....

Every day is a learning day here where I try new things and make something new. Makevember  is encouraging people to make one thing every day, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that (especially when I'm exhibiting at the NEC for 3 days this weekend) but I would hope to start using some of my newer tools a bit more. In the meantime I thought I'd just post some of the things I've made today. This is a selection of all the things I'm allowed to show you, I've actually spent most of the day working on a large project (more details on Monday). One of the important things about doing this every day is that you learn something from everything you do, I'll also briefly describe what I learned from these things. Pictured above are some car shells for remote control cake cars. These were vacuum formed from 1mm HIPS and I learned a lot considering I haven't formed anything for a few weeks. Plastic sheets come in multiple sizes, buy them too sma

The laser is good for personalising any item, this pull along toy made of wood is a prime candidate. There are a whole range of toys that could be done like this perfect for little ones.

I had a visitor come round and look at my laser cutters, he also bought some samples with him to see what could and couldn't be engraved. It's always fun to find new things to go in the machine. This purse was made from Poly Urethane, I set the power light and the speed fast and it lightly marked the surface, it's subtle but effective.